Beyond the fringes of the student Ghetto along Union Street, and jarringly close to Kingston Penitentiary, is West Campus, the home of 564 Queen’s students.
Just a few weeks ago, hundreds of new students moved into West Campus. And yet some of them may already be applying to get transferred to a Main Campus residence.
It’s no wonder why. The journey that Westies, as they are fondly called, must take to reach any part of Queen’s civilization is long. And if they find it painful now, it will be even worse come January when it’s minus 10 degrees outside.
As a Jean Royce Hall resident last year, I often found myself unleashing my verbal wrath upon West Campus whenever I had a heavy load, forgot something crucial between classes or had lost the feeling in my fingers midway through my walk home.
Despite all this, I and most other Westies found a way to make light of the situation. Many, myself included, would now admit that they enjoyed living on West Campus. Some would even say that they wouldn’t have lived anywhere else.
Indeed West Campus is far and its location is often inconvenient. It does, however, have many advantages that are almost always overlooked by most of the Queen’s population.
First of all, there are several perks to the location. Whether you choose to get to Main Campus on foot or via the bus, the commute is a pleasant part of the day.
The scenic walk along Union Street takes most people somewhere between fifteen and twenty minutes, which makes it a decent form of exercise. Many people say the walk is a nice start to the day or a good way to clear your head before a test.
Other Westies prefer the bus. And if you are someone who won’t be caught dead walking, living on West might actually be the place to be. The bus from West Campus stops right in front of many lecture halls so you actually walk less than if you lived on Main Campus.
There is no doubt about it, Westies love the bus, as their delightful cheer proclaims. If you don’t know it, it goes a little something like this: “We are on West, doot doot… Jump on it! Jump on it! Jump on it! … ” There’s more to it, and forgive me for trying to transcribe a cheer, but essentially they say “jump on it” a lot. And because they “jump on it”—the bus, that is—so often, West Campus residents develop a handy familiarity with the bus. They need to know when it comes, how often it comes, and where it takes them. A Main Campus resident probably wouldn’t need to know this but it’s helpful to know how to use Kingston Transit if you want to go anywhere outside of walking distance, or outside of the central Queen’s bubble for that matter.
West Campus is its own self-sustaining community. It has a gym, a cafeteria, a RezExpress, a library, a field (which Victoria Hall no longer has) and a full-service Tim Hortons just a few minutes away. Everything you need is right at your doorstep. Plus, Westies don’t have jackhammers going outside their building.
Jean Royce Hall also has smaller floors than other Main Campus buildings. West Campus is divided into 12 individual houses with four floors. Each floor has twenty single rooms, less than the majority of Queen’s residences. This creates a more intimate residence setting.
Many, myself included, would now admit that they enjoyed living on West Campus. Some would even say that they wouldn’t have lived anywhere else.
To illustrate: not unlike roomies on Main Campus, floormates on West eat their meals together but usually the entire floor will be able to sit at the same table. If you had 40 people on a floor, this would be impossible. As well, common rooms on West aren’t common at all. Typically you know every single person that ever walks into the common room so it’s really more like a living room. Moreover, Sunday dinner orders are usually compiled by not just one floor but sometimes half the house. And there is always someone to accompany you wherever you are heading off West Campus.
My friend Carmen Ng, ArtSci ’10, puts it very nicely:
“We have a really close community that you can’t get anywhere else. It feels like home. We know each other and we include each other.”
It’s true—we really are like family on West.
And while living on West, if you take the time to explore the area you will discover many of the most charming places in Kingston. From Kingston Penitentiary, the magnificent though perhaps intimidating building just one block south of West Campus, you can walk east along King St. towards Main Campus and discover some of the most beautiful homes in Kingston. If you walk west along King Street you will be heading towards my beloved 24-hour Tim Hortons, as well as the quaint Portsmouth Village, a small harbour along Lake Ontario. Walking through this area you would think you had stumbled upon a town in the Maritimes. All this is a hop, skip and a jump away from West Campus but I’m sure it would go completely unnoticed if you lived anywhere else on the Queen’s campus.
It goes without saying that living on West is a unique experience that can’t be attributed to the commute alone. Westies commute (a lot) but in the process they bond and learn about the city of Kingston outside of the Main Campus bubble, and the Hub. Sure, many people on West just see it as a drag, but those who try to make the most of it end up loving it, as I certainly did. It’s no surprise, then, that if you ask for a shout-out from people on West in a crowd you will get a wholehearted cheer.
So for all the non-Westies reading this, I implore you not to jump to the conclusion that everyone hates living on West Campus. It’s really not so bad.
For those who have never taken the bus to West Campus, I implore you to jump on it!
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